Authors:

Jennifer Heath(Linfield College)

Chun-Sheng Jiang(National Renewable Energy Laboratory)

Helio Moutinho(National Renewable Energy Laboratory)

Mowafak Al-Jassim(National Renewable Energy Laboratory)

The electronic properties of grain boundaries in polycrystalline and
multicrystalline silicon are known to vary significantly depending on the
individual grain misorientations, due to differences in dangling bonds,
strain, and impurity gettering.~ By correlating Electron Backscattering
Diffraction maps with the Light Beam Induced Current data, we can see, as
expected, that the minority carrier diffusion length is significantly
reduced near certain grain boundaries (GB) while others are relatively
benign.~ We have found that GBs with poor diffusion length also tend to have
trapped charge, resulting in depletion regions along the GB visible in
Scanning Capacitance Microscopy (SCM) data.~ Scans of SCM signal as a
function of dc probe voltage and temperature allow these regions to be more
quantitatively investigated.

*Acknowledgement is made to the Donors of the ACS Petroleum Research Fund for partial support of this research.

To cite this abstract, use the following reference: http://meetings.aps.org/link/BAPS.2010.MAR.H25.10